Online Conference in March
Meeting Notes From Online Conference 3/16/2006 Present: Sally, Elliott, Justin, Jenny, Rabea, Wes. Apologies: Juan, Aaron, Andrew, Linden. Minutes: 1. Elliot & Sally explained the reasons for the online conference: - to be debriefed on the progress of the different workgroups and ask for any help we may need. - to discuss plans for the international NextGEN Conference. - to keep motivation alive in general. 2. Elliott checked that everyone had the relevant documents: - Elliot's conference structure - Elliot's organisational structure documents - Wes' NextGEN application form - Justin's Goals and Aims document 3. WORKGROUP 1: JUSTIN ON GOALS & AIMS - He and Aaron have written a preliminary list of goals and aims which they have put on this wiki site - His next step is to put something together on the philosophy of NextGEN. - When he has finished his first draft he will post it on the forum in order to get feedback before we make it official. - When giving feedback, he asked that we don't edit the originals, but post our suggestions on the forum for discussion. Then it will be added to the original. - He stressed the importance of being clear about what our values, mission and philosophical base are as we proceed, so that we can refer back to them. - Elliott passed on Jonathan Dawson's (from GEN) feedback on his Mission Statement draft, saying that it was progressing well, and that it needs to be more concrete and substantial, and that he is willing to offer advice if Justin would like that. - It was agreed that people brainstorm, and leave their ideas on the space set aside on the wiki website for feedback. They should put their names first, so we know who has said what. - Sally and Elliott stressed that we should have focussed, achievable and concrete content in the mission statement. - ACTION: Justin will get into contact with Jonathan directly by email for advice, and Sally and Elliott will act as intermediaries in the the future whenever help is required. 4. WORKGROUP 2: ELLIOTT ON ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE - Elliott has put together a structure for NextGEN when it is properly established and in need of the formal structure, with council members, voting and checks, but at the moment recommends that we use the simple structure of all active members of the group making decisions by vote. Otherwise we would have too much red tape too early on. - Everyone voted in agreement with Elliott, and Justin suggested that we look to the international conference in July to set the formal structure in place. - We established that the active members of the group are: Elliott, Sally, Justin, Jenny, Rabea, Wes, Juan, Aaron, Andrew and Linden. - Justin has been working with a few people who he might want to add to the active members list. He will let us know. - Workgroups still fully functioning are Goals and Aims, The Hitchhiker's Guide to Ecovillages, and International Opportunities. Jenny is interested in taking over Outreach. - ACTION: Rabea will contact Jonna to see if she is still up for being webmaster. Sally & Elliott will contact Melissa to see if she still wants to do finance and fundraising. All other workgroup members will be sent an email asking if they want to carry on, and if they don't reply within 10 days, their workgroups will be assigned to active members. They can always rejoin whenever they want. Justin will send Sally an email list of all active members with a description of what they are doing. - Justin will also create a list serve. 5. WORKGROUP 3: JUSTIN AND JENNY ON NEXTGEN CONFERENCE IN MEXICO - The plan is to hold the event on July 24th-28th 2006, with an approximate headcount of 30. They are still sourcing people at the moment. People are having issues raising funds for the trip from Europe to Mexico. They are working on the itinerary of the even at the moment. They propose we do a brainstorm on this subject. - They reiterated the belief that this conference is essential because we are not functioning as an organisation yet, and it will springboard us in that direction. It is important for as many active members as possible to be there. - Elliott, Sally and Rabea brought up their need for the conference to be clearly defined before they start fundraising. Otherwise they would feel uncomfortable justifying an unecological plane trip at such an early stage of NextGEN. - Justin stressed that invaluable progress can be made face to face and we will all have time to focus together for an extended period of time. - Jonathan Dawson has told Elliott that GEN does not have funds, so we need to fundraise all the money ourselves. - He will get back to us with which GEN Elder will attend with us when we are more clear about what we would achieve with the conference. - Elliott and Sally offered ideas such as guest speakers and a work project we could do locally, but it was decided that more brainstorming should be done on the wiki conference planner brainstorm site. - ACTION: All members should post conference ideas on the site by Monday. Justin and Jenny will then get to work with the ideas. 6. WORKGROUP 4: RABEA ON INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES - Rabea asked all travelling members to tell her which ecovillages they have made contact with, and how deep. - ACTION: Jenny will email her all the information she has so far. 7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS - Justin asked if anyone knew who checked the website email address nextgen@gmail.com. It was thought that Jonna checks it. Justin has replaced it with his own email until we find out what is happening with it. - ACTION: Rabea will tell Justin what Jonna is doing regarding the website. - We will leave messages on the wiki site to update everyone on our progress, and will arrange for the next meeting (in about a month's time) on the Next Meeting slot of the site. - Elliott has up-graded the chat site used for the on-line conference so we can now leave messages for each other on there. htpp://www.chatzy.com/445438850714 Home home